First rate work
from Ofwatch in
getting Ofcom to reveal a little more about how they made the decision
to ban R18s.
More details and commentary at
Ofwatch
After
pressure from Ofwatch, Ofcom have now published minutes from some of the
key meetings to discussion the issue of R18s on TV.
25th Content Board meeting minutes
26th Content Board meeting minutes
As far as the Content Board
minutes were concerned it would appear that there was considerable
disagreement at Ofcom over what should have happen regarding the R18
issue:
The
(non unanimous) recommendation of the executive was:
That the transmission of
“R18” sex material was acceptable under Article 22(1) of the TWF
Directive i.e. the transmission of such material might not ‘seriously
impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors’; and
That generally accepted
security standards could be applied, so that members of the public would
be adequately protected from offensive and harmful material.
But that the executive had
decided not to make a recommendation on the third test whether people
under the age of 18 could be protected by means of adequate security
mechanisms.
The Content board was divided
over the first point, agreed with the second point but after
considerable, the Content Board agreed that the current level of
protection available would not adequately protect people under the age
of 18.
It was also noted that should
the R18 ban be lifted that Ofcom would need to identify what level/form
of protection would be required and that any such requirements would
need to be potentially achievable by all broadcasters/platform
providers.
On balance (although the
Board was very evenly divided), the Content Board felt that there was
insufficient evidence to indicate whether or not the physical, mental or
moral development of minors might be seriously impaired by the
transmission of such material, and therefore until such evidence was
available they should take a cautious approach to this issue.